Metamorphosis
by Fire Ceremony
Summary: This fic describes the events leading up to the beginning of the second of the Legacy of Kain games; Soul Reaver 1.
1. Default Chapter

The character of Kain and name of Nosgoth; property of Silicon Knights,   
Crystal Dynamics and Eidos.  
  
The characters of Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon and Melchiah;   
property of Crystal Dynamics and Eidos.  
  
Based on the game "Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver"  
  
  
  
  
Metamorphosis  
  
  
part 1  
  
  
  
  
  
Change. A transference of one state of being into another and then from there   
into yet another caused by the inherent restlessness of energy, always moving   
and coming into being as something new, again and again. After having gone   
through a change, one can never return to the state preceding the change,   
even if the change should turn out to be reversible. The reversion itself would   
represent just another change and the perspective differs by each one.   
  
The life of a mortal is an existence under the yoke of change, as the mortal is   
always at the mercy of the elements, the shifting seasons and its effect on the   
crops, the capricious rulers and their varying demands for taxes and war   
material. Then there is the mutable state of the mortal's own desires, his mind   
reaching for this state or that, retreating from some and shunning others.   
There is the appearance and disappearence of family, friends, riches and   
power, always coming and going, seldomly resting. And then after a lifetime   
of changes, some pleasurable, others painful and yet others unnoticeable, the   
mortal falls prey for the final change, death itself.   
  
It is different in the vampiric state. Here, the final change, that of death, has   
been turned into a constant, that of immortality. The changing seasons have   
little effect on the powers or resources of a vampire since his only needs are   
those of blood for feeding and a place to rest during the day. As long as he is   
able to feed himself and find shelter, the vampire need not worry about   
whether it is this king or that duke ruling the land, whether the winter is long   
or short or the crops good or bad.   
  
Instead, he is beyond the concerns of mortals and their striving and futile   
attempts at avoiding the unavoidable; death. Beyond the initial confusion of   
having to come to terms with the death of death, the existence of the vampire   
represents great opportunities for stability and constancy.   
  
Kain was the first of us to go beyond death. He created my brothers and I,   
and we in turn created the rest of the vampire legions in Nosgoth. With the   
enslavement of humans at the dawn of the empire and the establishment of   
power at the broken pillars, a vampiric haven of constancy was created in   
Nosgoth.   
  
However, even this existence of stability contained periods of intense   
change, not in the external world, but inside. Already during the wars, Kain   
changed. After days of exhibiting a mysterious lethargy and disinterested   
somnolescence, he fell into a deep sleep from which he could not be roused.   
Semi-solid blood which quickly hardened began oozing from his skin. Soon   
it covered his entire body like a solid black shroud. It was behind this shell   
that the first transformation took place. When Kain rose from his sleep a   
week later, he had changed. At first, he seemed no different than before, but   
soon the changes that had taken place became apparent. Lord Kain was more   
decisive, more energetic and more present. His physical strength and speed   
had increased, as had his hunger. His magical prowess had become greater.   
Wounds healed even more quickly than before. In our ongoing campaign to   
enslave the humans, under the leadership of Kain, we now became   
unstoppable. The legions, despite being much fewer in number than their   
human counterparts, swarmed the land like hungry locusts under Kain's   
expert leadership and soon the last of the human cities surrendered to our   
wills.   
  
After some time, Rahab could not be roused from his sleep and blood started   
coming from his pores. He changed. Then we all changed, one by one,   
becoming almost as strong as our creator. As time passed we experienced   
several such changes. Every time Kain would enter the torpor first, then one   
of us would follow and then in slow sequence the rest of us. The periods of   
deep sleep changed us profoundly, carried us further and further away from   
our mortal origins. But even these periods of change, because they repeated   
themselves over time, became a constancy in our existence in the new   
Nosgoth.   
  
However, the last time I changed, I could not have imagined what form it   
would take. Or what form I would take. In the time preceding the change, I   
pondered much about the wars nine hundred years ago. At that time, as now,   
the humans' religion was the fuel as well as their refuge in their war against   
us. Several places in the land the humans had built fortresslike cathedrals to   
protect the populace against us and keep them together in their faith, barring   
all acceptance of our presence in Nosgoth. The faith of the humans preached   
the righteousness of their existence and the damned state of their enemy; the   
vampires. The vampires were the spawn of the devil who had been damned   
by God and only deserved to be shunned back to hell from whence they   
came. The humans' God had bestowed upon them the power to discriminate   
between moral and immoral acts, between good and evil. Vampires on the   
other hand possessed no such power of discrimination, they were without   
conscience. They were not human and as such, were denied any and all rights   
of existence. Thus spake the faith of the humans and it was constantly   
encountered as combativeness in their lords, relentlessness in their warriors,   
resistance in war prisoners, fear in village inhabitants and vengefulness in   
their religious texts.   
  
In one respect the humans were right. We, the vampires were faithless. We   
had no God except the desire to rule ourselves and to manifest our loyalty   
towards our master. Yet, since we had once been mortals, we sometimes, in   
private, pondered the reasons for the humans' hatred towards us, our fates   
and the causes that had made us into what we were. We all knew the direct   
reason for our being. Kain had died and been resurrected by a necromancer   
and he in turn had created us. But who allowed these gifts, this magic to   
come into the world? Were we not in a way God's creation too? If God had   
not allowed our existence, would he not have seen to it that we would never   
have walked the earth in the first place? Some of us felt that our existence   
and our powers were so strong, they had to have been endowed us by none   
other than God himself and mentioned this in private conversation during the   
wars when the fighting was especially bitter. In addition, the humans claimed   
their God was moral and just, bidding the humans to view their fellow man   
with benevolence and respect. However, if God was moral and just, would he   
then not look with mercy upon anyone who tried to follow similar codes of   
conduct? What about our morals, our conscience? From where could it have   
originated? If God was the spark of conscience in both human and vampire,   
where was the true difference between man and vampire?   
  
We pondered long and hard on these questions. Although each man arrived at   
an answer in his own conscience or left the questions altogether, we never   
reached a consensus on them. After the wars ended, few encountered   
anything but enslaved humans and saw little to their cathedral fortresses and   
rigid faith and we forgot the old questions. However, with the listlessness   
that preceded the sleep of change, I had much time for introspection. I   
pondered these questions but reached no conclusion, only a gaping hole of   
unknowingness that with the approaching torpor slowly faded into apathetic   
indifference. Sensing it was time to surrender to the sleep of change, I fed   
well, entered the changing chamber with its dark walls and dimly burning   
braziers and let the deep sleep envelop me.   
  
The previous sleeps had been dreamless and empty, save for a few energetic   
movements in the state between sleep and wakefulness, but this time the   
period of change was filled with dreams of the world as it was prior to the   
first change, before Kain, when I was human. I remembered a field, running   
through it, being a child, seeing the sun as a blazing circle in the sky, feeling   
a warm breeze on my skin. Wearing a jerkin of fabric so rough it chafed the   
skin on my wrists, seeing sunlight shining on a grey stone floor through a   
stained glass window. The dreams were vague, their contents forgotten as   
soon as they came into being. I only knew they were peaceful and that they   
filled me with an intense and surprising longing for what had been but which   
I could not remember. It was a long time since I had not felt the hunger of the   
body and in the dreams of the world as it had been, the hunger had still not   
become present. My soul was, for the first time in centuries, at peace. The   
feeling of rest, of standstill, permeated my being. Time came to a halt. I was   
asleep for three decades. When I woke up, I had changed.   
  
The cocoon was wafer thin. A faint light filtered through its lacy structure.   
The difference of the shell at every change never ceased to amaze me. The   
first time it had been thick, like hardened mud and difficult to destroy. I   
remembered the panic of waking up inside it, the weakness of the body, the   
gnawing hunger, the determined yet futile attempt at breaking the thick shell   
which only caused more loss of energy and another failure of breaking the   
confinement, turning into a deepening spiral of despair. Eventually, Kain   
appeared and plunged a dagger through the side of the cocoon, splitting it   
open, releasing me from its claustrophobic interior. Having experienced the   
sleeping and waking enough times to become confident, I never fought the   
changes. But because of the unfortunate first time experience, the immediate   
awakening always held faint traces of fear.   
  
I rose left hand and the cocoon fell apart at my touch. It turned to a thin layer   
of dark dust, which was easily swept aside. I looked up at the dimly lit   
ceiling and gently inhaled to sample the air of the room. The scent of slow   
burning aromatic herbs reached me, additions to the lit braziers as a focus for   
the returned. I sat up, feeling the movements of the body being as I   
remembered them. I wondered what changes this sleep had brought. In the   
past, some changes had been apparent immediately upon awakening, such as   
the alterations of the hands and feet. At other times, the changes had been   
more subtle, such as the light hearing. Usually, there would be one apparent   
change of the body accompanied by one or more subtle changes of the mind.   
The new powers would always require some period of adjustment, either   
spent reveling in the change or occasionally, mourning the loss of certain   
aspects of the body. But what awaited me at the waking side of the sleep this   
time I would never have been able to anticipate.   
  
Externally, two leathery pale wings folded out of my back, stretched on a   
frame of skinless yet sturdy bones. The wings were as broad as the length   
between my shoulder and elbow and tapered to a narrow triangle at the tip. I   
gently tested the movement of the base of the bones and felt the entire frame   
shift with undulating movements. The wings were as mobile as my arms.   
Then I discovered the subtle change that the wings carried with them. The   
touch of moving air on the surface of the wings opened up something inside;   
the thirst of flight, of unencumbered movement, an heretofore unknown pull,   
an impulse in need of immediate satisfaction.   
  
I rose from the slate on which I had been sleeping, feeling more air move   
along the surface of the wings, deepening the need they were causing. Cold   
touch of the tiles of the floor. A door with a brass latch. I slowly opened it,   
then started up the dark spiraling staircase that lay beyond. At each turn of   
the staircase was a window and through it I could see an enticing light. With   
each step, the need to climb higher grew stronger. I passed the heavy door   
leading into the keep and the other members of my clan. It would have to   
wait. I ascended the staircase to the door that marked its end and opened it.   
My private chamber.   
  
The familiar room was filled with the rosy light of dusk coming in through   
tall vertical windows and a door with clear glass set in its middle. I   
approached this door, opened it and walked outside onto the balcony. After   
the darkness of the changing chamber, even the subdued light of the dusk   
was enough to sting my eyes. But the revulsion of sunlight, which had   
accompanied the vampiric body since the beginning, was gone. I knew the   
fading rays of dusk were not strong enough to harm me. The breeze was still   
warm from the sunny day. A faint smell of smoke was in the air. I walked up   
to the stone balustrade that edged the balcony, then climbed it. The slight   
wind sang in my ears, filled my being with a want impossible to resist. I   
fixed my eyes on the distant mountains, feeling the space separating myself   
and them, and without knowing how, I was in the air. For a heartbeat I felt   
fear, fear of falling and hurtling towards the ground. But then the wings took   
over. They guided my first flight, filling the longing of movement, then   
gently emptying this need; the desire for flight emptied and filled in one long   
cycle. There was no need to think or calculate. I need only be.   
  
That first flight, filled with joy and gratitude for the change, is almost enough   
to wipe out the memories of what followed. I was in rapture of the newly   
received gift. Grateful, and also proud. I knew the members of my clan   
would receive the same gift themselves and this would be our mark for the   
future. It would be my gift to the children.   
After an unknown length of time, I returned to the balcony balustrade. The   
rosy color of dusk had been replaced with the blue of evening and stars had   
appeared on the sky.   
  
Dogen was there. As I stepped down onto the balcony, he put a blanket   
around my shoulders. With the ceasing of the ecstasy of flight, and the   
waning of the day into night, the chill of the air made itself known in my   
body. I welcomed the rough touch of the blanket and thanked Dogen. Then   
the manservant helped me inside. I sank down into the seat in the alcove by   
the door and was handed a goblet. The red fluid inside still contained traces   
of warmth. I emptied the small vessel and felt some energy return, along with   
heat. I nodded at Dogen to indicate my gratefulness.   
  
"Master," he asked. "Shall I gather the court?" I shook my head.   
"I need to rest. We will assemble tomorrow instead. However, you may   
notify the court that I have awoken." Dogen nodded. "And Kain," I said.   
"Tell him as well."   
Dogen nodded again, then took the empty goblet, bowed and turned.   
Opening the door leading downstairs, he stopped and looked at me.   
  
"Master," he said.   
"Yes?"   
"How does it feel?" he asked. I looked at him. "To fly?" A smile rose inside   
me.   
"It feels like nothing else in this world."   
  
Alone in my chamber, I leant back into the seat. I could feel energy slowly   
return to my body. Unlike other awakenings, I felt no impulse to gather the   
court and acquaint myself with the changes that had taken place in the   
domain while I slept. Instead, I felt like shielding the still fledgling marks of   
my change to others, to keep it secret for a while longer and enjoy the   
freedom it afforded in solitude. I took this need and my lack of curiosity as a   
part of the change that had happened in sleep. No source for amazement, but   
rather something to contemplate and accept.   
  
I took in the room that had been my private chamber for more than nine   
centuries. Everything looked the way I remembered it; the patterned wooden   
ceiling, the broad bed by the wall, the darkened wall tapestries telling stories   
of old, tales from the time before Kain, the copper colored rugs on the floor. I   
looked out at the fire burning at the far wall of the courtyard, opposite the   
main gate; a beacon in the darkness to guide travelers approaching the   
domain after nightfall. I was at home. Feeling the calm of being in familiar   
surroundings settle, I turned my attention from the world at large to my own   
mind. After the third change, Kain and we of the first generation had learned   
to feel each others' mental presence, no matter how far away from each other   
we were. In the beginning this contact had been confusing and even   
disturbing, but once taken hold of the mind it felt comforting and assuring. It   
was a manifestation of the unity that was moving us, had moved us since the   
beginning of time.   
  
I opened my mind for my brothers and felt their presences. Dumah, proud   
Dumah was there. As expected, he expressed joy at sensing my presence,   
discovering I had awoken. Turel greeted me warmly as well. Then Rahab,   
generous as always, saying he could feel the change had been profound.   
Then in descending order of ease of contact; Zephon and Melchiah, the latter   
once more in a contest with his older brother and being emotionally   
distracted by it. I greeted them all with a wish to renew our stories where it   
had been broken off because of my sleep, my mood elevated by feeling their   
presences. But of Kain I could find no sensation. Surprised I searched more   
intently, deeper and wider. There were faint traces, but they were old, dying   
embers of his presence from a long time ago, perhaps from even before my   
going to sleep. Whatever they had been, they could not serve as sources to   
find my master. I wondered. Perhaps he was in a state of change himself. I   
would know in the morning, when the message of my awakening would be   
submitted to Kain.   
  
Feeling an increased presence of exhaustion in my body, I rose from the seat   
and approached the bed. The white covers and pillows had been untouched   
for decades but had been kept spotlessly clean and ready for my return. I   
parted the sheets and laid down. The weight of my own body created a soft   
pressure on the wings, not uncomfortable, only unfamiliar. It would not take   
long to get used to. I closed my eyes. Then a dream of flight started up.  
  



	2. Metamorphosis part 2

  
  
Metamorphosis part 2  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Master Raziel." Dogen's voice awoke me from dreamless sleep. I let in the   
waking world and turned towards the voice. The manservant was standing at   
the side of the bed.   
"Dogen," I asked, "What is it?"   
"There is a message from Lord Kain. He wants to see you at once."   
"Immediately?"   
"Yes, you are to meet him in the throne room as soon as you are ready. The   
messenger is waiting for confirmation." Kain was obviously not asleep. A   
night meeting in the throne room? We only met there when urgent matters   
that touched us all had to be discussed or when there was celebration to be   
done. The last time there had been an assembly on a sudden notice in the   
throne room was during the wars almost nine centuries ago after an entire   
phalanx had fallen in an ambush by the humans.   
  
I rose from the bed and saw that appropriate clothing displaying the clan sigil   
had been laid out on the chest at the foot end of the bed. I asked Dogen to tell   
the messenger I would be in the throne room as fast as possible, then thanked   
him. Dogen bowed and exited.   
  
As I entered the hallway to walk to the stables, Dogen approached me.   
"Master," he began. I stopped.   
"Yes, Dogen?"   
"If I may be allowed the boldness," he started, "please let me suggest an   
advice." I looked at him.   
"Yes, of course. You have always been my adviser, even when silent."   
"I suggest you wear a mantle on the way to the meeting with Kain," he said.   
"To shield your gift against unfriendly eyes." At this, a sensation of unease   
rose in me.   
"And whose eyes would that be?" I asked. Dogen didn't reply, merely bowed   
his head and presented the dark fabric that was folded in his hands. I knew he   
would not disclose anything more. Reminded of the reluctance I had felt   
earlier in the evening of displaying the wings to others, I took the heavy   
mantle and draped it around my shoulders.   
  
By the stables, the stable hand greeted me with a reverent bow. When he   
rose, I saw his eyes were dark with hunger. I hoped to be able to set off   
quickly so he could have his meal.   
"Master Raziel, how has your period of change been?" the elderly stable   
hand asked.   
"Very good, thank you, Lieser. And how are you and your family?"   
"We are well and thriving under your protection, my Lord." He smiled. "I   
have taken the freedom of readying the fastest of the horses for you, since I   
heard you are in a hurry. If you prefer another steed, please let me know and   
I will prepare another." Not recognizing the animal he presented, but trusting   
Lieser's choice, I nodded at him.   
"This one will do well, thank you." Lieser smiled again and bowed.   
  
"Master! How it is good to see you again." I turned. Phaidos, my second in   
command, was standing behind me, twohander hanging at his side.   
"Phaidos!" I exclaimed, taking two quick steps towards him and embracing   
him for a moment. "It is good to see you. I take it from your countenance you   
have fared well since last we parted." Phaidos nodded and smiled.   
"I cannot complain. The domain prospers and almost takes care of itself   
these days. And you, Master Raziel. You look fit after a long period of   
sleep." I nodded and smiled.   
"I am well, thank you."   
"How was the change?"   
"Unexpected, as always. But good." Phaidos smiled at this, then his face   
grew darker.   
"Master," he said. "There are strange tidings about. Something may be   
amiss."   
"What strange tidings? What have you heard?" Phaidos looked down.   
  
"I have heard little specific," he said. "It is more the lack of information that   
causes me to conclude all is not well. No one is willing to tell the reason for   
the sudden assembly in the throne room. The second in command are not to   
be present. No one knows why." The second in command? Then Kain had   
not intended this to be a meeting between himself and I only, but with all the   
clan leaders present?   
"In addition," Phaidos continued, "Nevel tells me her brother received orders   
tonight to seal all gates leading to the Melchiahim." Phaidos looked at me.   
"The only way to tell what is going on is to be present at the meeting," I   
replied. "I shall inform you amply of what transpires at the assembly. If there   
is an external threat, the clans will reunite and destroy it. If there is an   
internal threat, our clan will plan accordingly and meet it with the   
appropriate means. Do not worry." Phaidos nodded, then looked down.   
  
"If you wish," I continued, "we may meet by our gate at the Sanctuary of the   
Clans once the meeting is through and discuss matters further. As it is now, I   
cannot wait for you."   
Phaidos bowed. I took hold of the horse's reins and mounted.   
"At the Sanctuary of the Clans then," he said, looking up at me. "I shall   
depart at once to wait for you there until the assembly is over." I leaned   
down and clasped Phaidos' shoulder.   
"Once again you prove your loyalty and trustworthiness. I thank you."   
Phaidos nodded and bowed. I spurred the horse and then there was only the   
wind and the way and the sound of the steed's hooves on the hard ground.   
  
Beyond the gate of the Sanctuary of the Clans, I dismounted. A short walk to   
the north led me to Kain's gate, holding in its center his sigil, a stylized bat   
with outstretched wings. The gate was open but unguarded. Crossing the   
small footbridge that led into the corridor of the throne room, I met Milen,   
Turel's second in command. We bowed at each other and exchanged   
greetings. His unhurried behavior made the unease I felt in my stomach more   
pronounced. His presence confirmed my suspicion that the rest of the   
brothers were present at the meeting with the secondary clan leaders waiting   
to be called in afterwards. Phaidos' words that Melchiah was shutting down   
the gates of his domain, kept repeating themselves in my mind. Was my   
brother's clan barricading themselves? Who or what was threatening them?   
  
Passing the last gate leading into the throne room, I turned left. There were   
two guards stationed by the open door. I nodded at them, then, steeled myself   
and removed the mantle from my shoulders before entering the throne room.   
The rules of the clans demanded that the changes after a period of sleep be   
disclosed at the first assembly with everybody present. We held no secrets   
for each other.   
  
Feeling the movement of air against the wings reduced the unease I had been   
feeling. In its place, pride rose in me. The wings marked a freedom from   
human and vampiric constraints my clan would soon experience by   
themselves. It heralded a new future.   
  
I walked down the platform to the middle of the brightly lit room. In the   
corner of my eyes I could see Turel, Zephon and Dumah straighten their   
backs and stare. Kain was sitting on the throne at the far end of the platform.   
At the circle at the throne room's center, I customarily kneeled and bowed to   
greet Kain and my brothers. Then I rose the wings and folded them out,   
enjoying the sensation of their fluid movement.   
  
Kain rose from the throne and descended onto the floor with an expression of   
intense interest. The fine veins covering the skin of his face and chest   
seemed darker than I remembered. I stood and lowered the wings, meeting   
my creator and master's pale eyes. I could sense he was inordinately focused,   
concentrating not only on me, but on something beyond I could not read. He   
was less surprised than I had anticipated, but all the more poised to act. His   
focused energy made me steel myself, but I could not in the most paranoid of   
deliriums have anticipated what happened next. Kain approached me in   
silence and upon turning behind me, passed his hand across the left wing.   
The intense heat of his touch startled me. It was only by strength of will I did   
not fold the wings in. The reactions of my surroundings were inscrutable.   
Kain's aloofness and hostile concentration was at once disappointing and   
incomprehensible. I could only let myself be carried away on the waves of   
the events as they arose and try to act on to them as necessary.   
  
Kain passed his hand once more over the surface of my wings and this time a   
dark impulse escaped his mind and found its way into mine: directed,   
controlled anger. I had seen this side of Kain during the wars, his hatred for   
those who chose to withhold acceptance for our presence and powers in   
Nosgoth and instead trying to fight us in their blindness. His hatred for the   
humans who kept on insisting that they be fought and defeated, his hatred for   
selfish defiance. Yet I had never seen this rage directed towards any of us   
and had certainly never experienced it aimed at myself. I could not find the   
reason for such emotion.   
  
Then, Kain closed his hands around my wing bones and with a quick   
movement, ripped them out of my back. Pain exploded inside my mind. The   
world disappeared in a cloud of agony. I could not see or think. The floor   
came up to meet me, and my own hands ineffectively strove to keep it   
beneath me. Attempting to hold onto consciousness and get up, I   
nevertheless felt the world close around me, leaving nothing but darkness.   
  
When I regained consciousness, I was being moved. My back felt as if it was   
bleeding, the touch of air against the wings which previously had provided   
such sweet sensations, had now been exchanged for excruciating pain.   
Strong hands were holding me and pulling me along the ground. I twisted   
and looked up. Dumah and Turel, those of my brothers whom I held most   
dear. Where were they taking me?   
  
The sudden acrid smell of water, the uncomfortable touch of moist wind on   
my skin and the sound of a deep roar transmitted by the ground beneath us   
answered my question. We were high above a churning, spinning vortex of   
water, sucking in material from seven waterfalls, the center of Nosgoth: The   
Lake of the Dead, the execution grounds. I was about to be executed? I did   
not comprehend. What had been my wrongdoing? In what way had I failed   
my brethren? The wings? But that was ridiculous. My allegiance to Kain had   
not changed.   
  
In an attempt at understanding the motivation of Kain and my brothers, I   
tried opening my mind to them. Nothing. There was an absolute silence.   
Despite my two brothers being close enough to touch me, I could not sense   
the presence of their minds. They were simply not there. Neither could I feel   
Kain. He was gone too. The isolation was complete. I had been abandoned.   
To confirm the fact, I heard my creator say:   
  
"Cast him in!" At that, my confused disbelief turned to terror. Dumah and   
Turel increased their grip on my shoulders. With my last pieces of will, I   
tried to wrestle out of their hands. But to no avail. I felt their strong hands   
heave me into the air, then I was falling, hurtling towards water's surface. I   
reached out to take flight, but the wings did not respond, there was nothing   
there that could obey the orders of my mind. I screamed upon seeing the   
frothing, moving face of the spinning vortex. Then the water engulfed me,   
wrapping itself around me.   
  
The water seared over the surface of my skin, burning with the intensity of   
fire. I clawed at the water to grab hold of something, anything that could stop   
the falling and the burning. But there was no getting away from the water, I   
plummeted through it like air. The burning sensation took hold of the body.   
It was like a blanket of flames and with each second it cut deeper and deeper   
into my flesh. Body and mind screamed in agony. I could feel the burning   
water eating my flesh away. It penetrated the inside of my mouth and throat,   
found its way into and behind my eyes, destroying everything it touched.   
Inside this boundless agony, my body and mind twisted and squirmed   
helplessly, desperate in its attempts at finding a way to escape the pain. But I   
was trapped. There was nothing but pain inside and out.   
  
Turning away from the horror of the body towards itself, the mind   
encountered yet more pain. My master had reduced a millennium of service   
to him to nothing and ordered me to this fate of agony and shame. My   
brothers had forgotten all about our common origin and assisted in carrying   
out the execution. Had I not served them all as faithfully and loyally as I   
could? Had my sacrifices for the good of the empire not been enough?   
A sudden and intense anger directed at those who had condemned me for a   
crime I could not comprehend appeared, quickly growing in strength. My   
brothers and Kain. I had not failed them. They had betrayed me.   
From the deepest recesses of my being, I began to hate them.   
With that, the torture was complete. The emotional pain of abandonement   
and humiliation and the rage of betrayal and hatred sublimated my mind into   
a cloud of impenetrable confusion and blinding madness. I could not think, I   
could not see. I could not exist. I ceased to be and time disappeared. An   
eternity passed.   
  
Then, the pain of the physical body slowly and inexplicably receded, little by   
little, leaving my mind to condense into something akin to its former state. I   
regained the ability to think and with it, the bitterness and anger returned   
with renewed strength. And a voice. At first I thought it merely a mirror of   
my own ruined mind. But the voice told me of things I had not been aware   
of. How the world was created and to what purpose. Who my master really   
was. Of the pillars and the true dawn of the empire. Of hunger and souls.   
  
The voice offered me revenge against Kain if I manifested his power and   
took back the souls that were now stalking Nosgoth as undead vampires.   
Souls which the voice, the Elder, regarded as his own. I had lost everything I   
held dear, my brothers, my clan, my home. I had only one desire, to leave the   
present state of agony and enter oblivion. Yet, with the Elder's offer came the   
lust for revenge, the growing wish to let my treacherous brethren have a taste   
of the pain and humiliation they had condemned me to. And with the Elder's   
promise that I would be allowed to leave as soon as I had freed the souls he   
wanted, I accepted his offer.   
  
I felt myself drawn back into the body. There was no pain any more. I got   
hands and legs beneath me and stood. I looked down at myself. The water   
had seared away my skin. Muscle and tendons lay exposed, yet they worked   
as well as before. My lower jaw and throat had been burned away, but I   
covered that with the old clan sigil, which had followed me in the descent   
through hell. I was alive. A deep and heretofore unknown need was vibrating   
inside me in resonance with my craving for revenge; the hunger for my   
brothers' and Kain's souls. It was stronger than the hunger for blood had ever   
been, because that had been a hunger of the body. This was a hunger of the   
soul. I had indeed changed. Now these changes would make themselves felt   
in Nosgoth.   
  
  
  



End file.
